To prevent it from clumping I mixed the matcha with the water using a frother from ikea, and then used the frother to froth the milk as well (duh). I poured the tea over ice and poured the milk on top.

The verdict?

It was alright. There were a few things that were off. First, it had a very chalky taste. Second, the coconut milk was too over powering, next time I will try using cashew milk. And third, it needed to be a little bit more sweeter.

I also wanted to add that I started a new job not too long ago, and I looked like a total kook making this drink and taking pictures in the lunch room.

I was STARVING when I got home from work!!! So I prepared a little snack. Lettuce with guacamole and hemp seeds sprinkled on top, rolled into a taquito. SO GOOD!!!!!!

For dinner I just grabbed a bunch of stuff out of the fridge and mixed it together in a skillet.

Snacks - A few macadamia nuts. I also tried eating a papaya... Let me explain, I don't like papaya but a lot of the youtube people I watch seem to love the stuff, so I decided to give it another try. AND I still think its gross, it smells weird and leaves this nasty after taste of stinky feet in my mouth. Bleh!

Dear Cauliflower,I secretly hated your guts for many years. And this recipe has helped open my eyes. Please accept my apology for neglecting you and thinking of you as the most disgusting veggie on a veggie platter.LoveMonica

I L.O.V.E this recipe. The secret is to make sure you break the cauliflower into really small pieces (large pieces of cooked cauliflower are gross). The maple syrup balances out the spiciness from the sriracha, and the sesame oil lends a nice Asian flair.

Sriracha Roasted CauliflowerRecipe courtesy of my co-worker

Ingredients

• 1 bag of cauliflower or 1 small head of cauliflower

• 2 tsp. sriracha

• 1/2 tsp. maple syrup

• 1/2 tsp. sesame oil

• 2 tsp. garlic powder

• 4 tbsp. avocado oil

• Salt and pepper to taste

1 Preheat oven to 425°

2 Break or cut the cauliflower into small pieces

3 In a bowl add the cauliflower along with all the other ingredients and mix with a spoon. Since the cauliflower absorbs a lot of liquid make sure that there is enough oil so that it does not dry up while roasting.

4 On a parchment lined baking sheet evenly spread out the cauliflower.

5 Bake the cauliflower for 20 minutes. Halfway through roasting be sure to move it around with a spoon to keep it from burning.

MarchDaylight savings happened in March and that made me very happy. Something about getting out of work and it still being daylight makes me a little less depressed that I just spent all day at a desk. It also gives me tons of energy to cook and clean. I also started using my recipe binder again this month, it helped me plan out each meal for the week and have a very specific grocery-shopping list so no food would go to waste.

AprilWe went camping this month at Big Sur state park. I lOVE Big Sur. Its one of my favorite places in California, besides Disneyland of course. This was also the first camping trip that Ruben and I went on by ourselves. We had a great time eating and playing cards. Being fancy drinking wine and eating cheese and crackers.

MayOur anniversary trip this year was to a place we have always talked about going, New York. It was quite the experience. My parents and my youngest brother came with us, since they haven't gone on a vacation for about 26 years this was a big treat for them. We spent our first day there walking across the Brooklyn Bridge and than visiting the 9/11 memorial. Both were quite epic, the bridge was beautiful. Its something you have to see in person to understand how great it is. For lunch we caught the train to New Jersey to have lunch at a Portuguese restaurant. OH MY GOSH, it was some of the best food we had on our whole trip. I wish there were Portuguese restaurants like that where we live. We went over to Teixeira bakery after to grab some pasteis de nata, also delicious.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we visited and toured the watchtower buildings in Patterson, Wallkill, and Brooklyn. Its amazing to see how everything is ran, and how much thought goes into everything they do.

Thursday we woke up early and did a tour of the Met Museum what a gorgeous museum. we spent a good 6 hours there, and by the end of it we were beat. We took a taxi back to the hotel. Despite being exhausted beyond belief my mom and I being the crazy people we are decided we wanted cheesecake so we went to juniors and took it back to our hotel. Their original cheesecake is delicious; I think it tastes better if you order a slice to eat there rather than getting it to go.

On Thursday night Ruben and I had a date night and went to a Mexican restaurant, I don't remember what it was called. We ordered grasshopper tacos. Yes I said grasshopper tacos. It was a bit too crunchy for my taste, so Ruben ate most if it. But the drinks and the rest of our food were really good.

Friday was the day we did central park. Wow what a beautiful park, we didn't get to walk all of it, but we got to see most of what we wanted. For lunch we had Grays Papaya hot dogs. My mom loved it, the hot dogs were all right but I really liked the papaya drink. We walked to the empire state building to stare at it from the street. haha.

I still had a few food places I wanted to try so we did that after the empire state building. I started my food tour at Eately and it is an incredible place. I am not sure if I can describe it to you but I will try my best. You walk in and there are TONS of people everywhere, its loud, and there are different food counters everywhere. There was a coffee counter, dessert counter, ice cream counter, dried meat counter, fresh pasta counter and so on. And than there were different restaurants inside. There was a fish restaurant, vegetarian restaurant a meat cheese cracker and wine bar, a pasta bar. It was insane. We were so exhausted from walking that we just wanted to sit and eat. I split a piece of lasagna with my mom; Andrew my brother ordered a ham and cheese calzone and Ruben got a margarita pizza. My lasagna was good, I could tell the pasta was fresh, Ruben’s pizza was alright, and Andrews’s calzone was the best. Next on the list was Milk Bar; I ordered cereal milk soft serve, a slice of crack pie and a chocolate cornflake cookie. The cereal milk soft serve really tasted like cereal milk (duh) but it wasn't my favorite thing, the crack pie was just alright but I really enjoyed the cornflake cookie. It was chewy but had a delightful crunch from the cornflakes. Our next stop was churro place. We ordered churros with a chocolate dipping sauce. It wasn't anything special. Next we went to a bakery to pickup a croissant it was very flaky and buttery, but at the end of the day it was just a croissant. The next place was a place that one of our friends that live in Brooklyn recommended and I loved it. Think of it as a Baskin Robins but for rice pudding. It was called From Rice to Riches. They had at least 20 different flavors of rice pudding and they were so creamy and tasty. Not to mention the decor was hilarious. My mom ordered the mango and the Oreo flavor. The Oreo was my favorite. Our last stop was Mariebelle Chocolates. I went there because I saw it on an episode of Dulce Delight (I love her). The store itself is beautiful, there’s a chandelier in the middle of the room and all the packaging is adorable. In the back of the store there is an area where you can order hot chocolate. I ordered the aztec hot chocolate american style with a side of whip cream. It came in the cutest little teacup, I was in love. The sipping chocolate was so rich and decadent and the ambience of the place made me feel so fancy. I purchased a little box of the hot chocolate mix to make at home and when they bagged it for me they place two rose petals in my bag - so cute and thoughtful! I ate so much food that night that I went back to the hotel room feeling sick to my stomach. On our last day there we went to stumptown coffee. Since I don't drink coffee I ordered mint tea and a morning muffin. We took my mom to Macy's and she was like a kid in a candy store. Later on we went to the grand central train station and WOW it was beautiful. And for dinner that night we went to Pio Pio a Peruvian restaurant. It was incredibly loud inside but the food was AMAZING and there was so much of it. For all the food we ordered we only paid $70. That night I still had one more place I wanted to go to. So at about 11 PM we went to Serendipity 3 to try their famous frozen hot chocolate. First off the service was terrible, and what made it worst is that there is an $8.50 minimum order per person in order for you to be allowed to order ANYTHING. So instead of just ordering the frozen hot chocolate Ruben was also forced to order something. I think all of that led to me not enjoying my frozen hot chocolate. I didn't think it was that great, it tasted like a chocolate frappuccino.

I thought New York was a beautiful city; everywhere you turn there is something neat to look at. But everyone honks like crazy and it’s too hustle and bustle for my taste. I don't think I would survive living there but I wouldn't mind going back to visit and eat more good food.

JuneTo follow up on our bad eating habits in New York we decided to do the Whole30. I only lasted 2 weeks this time but Ruben did the full month. But since I have already done the Whole30 3 times before I was fine with that.

JulyThe most exciting thing to happen this month would be me getting a vitamix. Haha :)

What happened is exactly what I am trying to figure out. It’s been such a long time since my last post that it’s actually quite pathetic. I meant to post, but than something always got in the way or I was too tired. I know I know, excuses excuses. But to make up for it I have written a "little" summary of where i have been. ﻿November﻿In November Ruben planned a mini getaway for us to San Francisco, even though we only live an hour away from the city, it was nice to be able to spend the whole weekend there and to walk everywhere. Driving in the city can be such of a headache. The best part about this getaway was that it was in every way imaginable a foodie weekend ( Warning - most of the food pictured is not paleo, but in my defense I was on vacation). On Friday when we arrived to our hotel we made our way out to grab a quick bite before dinner. We split a "burrito" at Sushirito. The burrito was a bit bland and would have been better if there was a sauce to go along with it. For dinner Ruben had managed to get us reservations at Gary Danko. I will be honest and say that I had never heard of Gary Danko before, but Ruben has always talked about going there since before we were married, so I knew he was really excited. Gary Danko was a great experience; we each chose a 4-course meal. My favorite dish was Rubens Pork belly, it was amazing! And I really enjoyed my dessert; it was some sort of apple muffin thing.

On Saturday we woke up early (not by choice, it sucks not being able to sleep past 7:00 AM anymore) and went walking to the San Francisco farmers market. I have never seen the streets of S.F so dead, it was quite nice. The farmers market was fun, for breakfast I ordered corned beef with potatoes, eggs and toast. And Ruben ordered roasted chicken with roasted potatoes. After breakfast we went to blue bottle coffee and since Ruben could not decide on which drink he wanted he ordered two, a latte and an iced coffee. With his two coffees in hand we walked around the farmers market, I bought some beautiful black berries and we sat on a bench enjoyed the view of the bay and talked and snacked on blackberries and Ruben sipped on his coffees. It’s the little things like that that you remember forever. We walked through all the stores on the pier I picked up an Italian donut with chocolate filling and also an organic chocolate vanilla soft serve ice cream. And mind you, we consumed ALL this food before 12:00 PM. We were off to a great start already. :)

Yes those are whole chickens and chunks of meat roasting, and the drippings fall down below onto the potatoes. You can only imagine how amazing it tasted.

We walked back through the city and than went over to china town (I bought 5 scarves for $20, such a steal). At about 3:00 PM we were exhausted and felt as if our legs were going to fall off, so we went back to the hotel to rest. Dinner was decided last minute but I LOVED our food. The restaurant was called Wayfare Tavern, it’s a Tyler Florence restaurant. The decor inside the restaurant was super cute, and since we didn't make reservations ahead of time we only had the option to sit at what was called the chefs table, which is a little bar that sits around all the chefs prepping all the food. We actually enjoyed sitting there; probably more so than we would have enjoyed a table. All the food was delicious, but let me just tell you that their fried chicken is the BEST fried chicken I have ever had. I am not a big fan of fried chicken, but this chicken was crispy and had so much flavor. It was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

Sunday morning we hopped in our car and drove over to Berkeley to have breakfast at Cafe M (a fantastic spot to have breakfast). The Crate and Barrel outlet was next door and there Ruben found a kitchen island. It was missing a door but was marked down from$ 500 to $150. We purchased it, had them wrap it up and threw it into the back of our car. We drove back to the hotel to pickup our stuff and stopped by Plentea before leaving the city. Plentea is a boba drink place that serves their drinks in a glass bottle (you like how I throw that part in?). The tea itself was alright, but I think next time if I go back i would order something different. At least the glass bottles they came in were cute.

DecemberMy mom began feeling sharp pains in her stomach and had the flu for a few days. She made an appointment with her doctor and when she went in they told her that her gall bladder was infected and she had to have an emergency surgery to remove it right away. She called me while I was at work and was frantic because she wasn’t expecting that they were going to have to operate on her. Long story short, she had the surgery done and that weekend I went over to watch movies with her and paint her nails.The following week she received a phone call from her doctor notifying her that they had made a mistake and that instead of taking removing her gal bladder they removed a piece of fat. Meaning that her gall bladder was still inside of her. When we found out, we were beyond confused. I couldn't understand, I still don't get it. She went back to the doctors a few more times but they told her that her gall bladder seemed like it was no longer inflamed and that there was no point in trying to remove it. That was my DecemberJanuary / FebruaryOur bedroom has been the same since we got married. Brown curtains, brown carpet, beige bedspread. It was way overdue for a remodel. So on new years day I began building what would be our new bedside tables. They were the ikea Rast drawers, they were cheap and since they were raw wood it allowed me to paint them whatever color I desired. I built them in one day, but than took a month just to pick what color I wanted to paint them. I finally decided on yellow. It was fun doing the remodel, but I am definitely not a decorator, I get too frustrated and can never stick to just one project or idea. I end up with too many patterns and colors and before you know it I am crying under the covers because I am so confused. Ugh, I can be so dramatic. I also decided to do the Whole30 in January. Since so many of our friends were also doing the Whole30 we hosted a Whole30 dinner party and I asked each couple to bring their favorite Whole30 side dish. It was a lot of fun.

We hopped onto the juicing bandwagon back when Fat Sick and Nearly Dead had come out. Ruben had just been diagnosed with MS a few months back, and after watching the documentary we felt so inspired that we decided to give it a try. And so we purchased our first juicer as a married couple, and Ruben began his juice fast. The juice fast lasted for 3 weeks and he lost about 20 pounds in the process. The first few days he said were the hardest, but after his body had adapted he did fine. I however need to eat food, so I would drink juice in the morning for breakfast with him and had an occasional juice for dinner. Eventually though, like all fads, the juicing came to a halt and we retired our juicer to where all unused appliances go, to our pantry. It sat there for quite some time, but recently my coworker began bringing in juice for me in the morning, and that urged me to whip our juicer out and see what good stuff I could come up with. I don’t know what it is, but there is something so satisfying about going to the farmers market and bringing home fresh produce at the peak of its season to make freshly pressed juice with. I have been juicing in the morning, but Ruben does not partake in consuming these juices with me. I believe it has to do with the fact that while he was doing his juice fast, he tried to juice a red bell pepper. He said the taste was so awful that he can still taste it until this day. I don’t blame him, but hopefully he comes around soon and we can be juicing buddies again. In the meantime though I have been splitting my juice with my coworker, even the most potent juices she has guzzled down with me (while simultaneously eating her peanut butter and jelly sandwich to mask the awful taste. Haha) She is such a good friend. This juice is not potent at all, it’s actually a bit on the sweet side because of the watermelon. So if sweet is not your thing, I suggest adding another kale leaf to counter balance it.

Beet Juice

Yields: 2 cups

Ingredients

1/2 a large beet

1/2 an apple

1/2 an orange

3 beet leaves or 3 kale leaves

2 cups diced watermelon

Optional: 5 mint leaves

Juice all your ingredients.

Strain juice. (If you don’t mind the pulp you can skip this step)

Toss the mint leaves into a cup and pour your juice over the top.

Enjoy!

I prefer my juice cold, so I toss in a few ice cubes. To change up the recipe I may add some fresh ginger next time.

On a side not, I really love our juicer. It is an Omega Juicer, and I love it for 3 reasons:

It’s not loud like most juicers because it’s whats called a masticating juicer. Instead of pulverizing your ingredients, it slowly squeezes them to make juice.

Because it slowly squeezes out your juice, it will not heat it up like most juicers, and in turn preserves the enzymes and vitamins in the juice.

I think it’s fairly easy to clean (compared to other juicers that are so big and seem to have a lot going on)

about me

Hi, my name is Monica. I spend most of my free time in the kitchen. (Just ask my friends) I love cooking, baking and experimenting. Take a gander around my page and drop a comment if you have any questions.